Women are all over the Grammys top categories, all of which expanded from five nominees to eight for the first time this year. Record of the Year has five women nominated or co-billed with men, Album of the Year sees five women nominated plus one soundtrack with women featured; Song of the Year honored no women songwriters last year, but this year five of the nominated songs have women songwriters (including a historic nomination for Teddy Geiger), and six of the eight Best New Artist nominees are women.

Cardi B is one of the most visible women nominated in the top categories, where she landed Record and Album of the Year nods. The last woman in hip hop to get the AOTY nod was Missy Elliot for 2004’s Under Construction, and the last to win was Lauryn Hill with her landmark 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. That is incredible company for Cardi to be in, and a huge vote of confidence in her future by the Academy.

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One of the most nominated artists, Brandi Carlile, is a gay Americana artist who, as we noted when By The Way, I Forgive You came out, should be embraced by mainstream country but is a little too smart for that genre and its radio-driven charts. The lack of recognition didn’t stop the Grammys from loading this career-best album down with six well-deserved nominations. Her recognition means so much, because this album that deals with the typically feminine issues of motherhood and relationships, but also talks about opioid addiction, LGBTQ visibililty and acceptance, and even a murder ballad about the killing of a Jane Doe. Carlile’s excellent LP takes on a ripped-from-the-headlines vibe at times, wrapped in a crunchy Americana musical package, and it’s is a huge political statement in the Trump era. At a time when the presidential administration refuses to denounce white supremacists, won’t acknowledge the dozens of women who accused the president of sexual misconduct, and has tried to pass legislation to erase transgender people, nominating Carlile for this album is a huge fuck you on behalf of the Academy to the prevailing winds of nationalism that would attempt to blow us apart.

Another important nomination can be found in the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical category, where Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera, Pink) is honored this year. Perry breaks an embarrassing streak for the Academy, who have failed to nominate a woman as best producer since 2004. As the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found in their report, released just before the last Grammy Awards, women producers twiddled the knobs on only 2% of songs. Visibility matters: not seeing women nominated in this category for some 14 years sent a message that it’s not a job for women; it was imperative that the Grammys course-correct. With Perry’s Golden Globe nomination for Dumplin’, which was announced just yesterday, she’s in a prime position to be a serious contender.

Women have also foundered in the eyes of the Academy as songwriters, where the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found they wrote less than a quarter of the most popular songs over the last six years. The Song of the Year category reflects a shift, with six women nominated for their writing.

It’s highly unlikely we’ll see only one woman win an award during this year’s Grammy telecast on Sunday, February 10, 2019. And it’s about time.